Daniel Ortega Goes From U.S. Foe to Friend in Drug War Battle - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Daniel Ortega Goes From U.S. Foe to Friend in Drug War Battle Michael McDonald José Daniel Ortega Saavedra has been President of Nicaragua since 2007. Photographer: Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan leader who overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and then bore the wrath of rebels funded by American weapons sales to Iran, isn’t so bad after all, at least according to drug-policy experts. While the 69-year-old Ortega remains a fierce critic of the “Yankees” to the north, Nicaragua doesn’t give the U.S.

the sort of drug, immigration or crime headaches brought on by closer allies in Central America or Mexico. Cocaine-filled planes heading to the U.S. are more likely to land in Honduras, where a U.S. military post exists, than Nicaragua, according to State Department reports. Gang-fueled crime that helped push tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children toward the U.S. last year is nearly non-existent in Nicaragua, the region’s poorest country, according to World Bank data. “The efforts of the government of Nicaragua to protect their territory and their people from the activities of drug traffickers have been quite positive,” William Brownfield, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, told reporters last week. That came despite “various complicated elements” in U.S.-Nicaragua relations, added Brownfield, whose department is commonly referred to as “Drugs and Thugs.” Even grudging compliments from U.S. officials would have been unthinkable a generation ago, when the political controversy over U.S.-funded rebels fighting Ortega’s Sandinista government dominated foreign policy debates in Washington, where Ortega was seen as a puppet of the Soviet Union.

‘Freedom Fighters’ “Nicaraguan freedom fighters have never asked us to wage their battle, but I will fight any effort to shut off their lifeblood and consign them to death, defeat, or a life without freedom,” President Ronald Reagan told Congress in his 1987 State of the Union speech. “There must be no Soviet beachhead in Central America.” Now, U.S. military officials who would have strategized against Ortega’s government a generation ago work with it instead. The U.S. has donated equipment to Nicaragua and helped train its Navy to better detect airplanes and go-fast boats carrying South American cocaine. Most recently, the U.S. backed the Nicaraguan Navy’s “Christmas Without Drugs” operation , which led to the seizure of 630 kilograms (1,400 pounds) of cocaine between Dec. 22-24. ‘Less Corrupt’ Flights carrying drugs from Nicaragua to neighboring Honduras have also declined, said Eric Olson, Associate Director for the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program. “Nicaragua has been a very good partner on counter-narcotics efforts,” Olson said via e-mail, adding that trafficking routes might be shifting.

“Nicaraguan police are less corrupt and more capable of carrying out counter-narcotics missions than security forces in other Central American countries.” If the positive comments from U.S. officials are softening up the former Sandinista rebel, it’s hard to tell from his rhetoric. At a regional summit in Costa Rica this month, Ortega slammed the U.S. for its continuing embargo of Cuba, criticized its “neocolonialism” in Puerto Rico and said the U.S. is plotting a “bloody, brutal” military coup to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, one of Ortega’s closest allies. “The Yankee keeps conspiring, the Yankee doesn’t change,” Ortega said. “They want all our countries to be subordinate.” Nicaraguan Tourists Public affairs officials at Nicaragua’s presidential palace, military, police and foreign affairs ministry didn’t respond to messages left by Bloomberg News. Nicaraguan revolutionary Manuel Coronel Kautz, a former deputy foreign affairs minister under Ortega who now leads the country’s effort to build a transoceanic canal, said the relationship with the U.S. was “always quite good,” at least in anti-narcotic operations.

“We had a different vision for Central America than they did, but that doesn’t mean the relationship wasn’t good,” Kautz said in a telephone interview. “The Nicaraguan character is very rebellious. We have our own view of things.” Tourists are increasingly being lured to the country, with visits rising 8.1 percent last year to 1.35 million, according to state-run media. Travelers from the U.S, Canada and Europe flock to the nation of 5.8 million people to visit the Spanish colonial village of Granada and tour the islands of Lake Nicaragua, which is surrounded by a volcanic chain. ‘Unconstitutional President’ That helped the $11 billion economy expand about 4 percent last year, the same pace forecast for 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund. Latin America is forecast to expand just 1.3 percent this year, the IMF said . The most important business stories of the day. Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter.

Daniel Ortega | president of Nicaragua | Britannica.com president of Nicaragua Alternative Title: José Daniel Ortega Saavedra Daniel Ortega Daniel Ortega, in full José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (born November 11, 1945, La Libertad , Nicaragua ), Nicaraguan guerrilla leader, member of the Sandinista junta that took power in 1979, and the elected president of Nicaragua (1984–90, 2007– ). Daniel Ortega, 2006. Yuri Cortez—AFP/Getty Images Son of a veteran of the peasant army of César Augusto Sandino , Ortega moved with his family to Managua in the mid-1950s. He briefly attended the Central American University in Managua, then in 1963 he went underground and became a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). By 1967 he was in charge of the FSLN’s urban resistance campaign against the ruling Somoza family. In the fall of 1967 Ortega was arrested for his part in a bank robbery and spent the next seven years in jail.

He and a number of other Sandinista prisoners were released at the end of 1974 in exchange for high-level Somocista hostages. Ortega, with the other released prisoners, was exiled to Cuba , where he received several months of guerrilla training. After secretly returning to Nicaragua, Ortega played a major role in the conciliation of various FSLN factions and in the formation of alliances with business and political groups. This policy gradually turned the guerrilla campaign into a full-fledged civil war and led to the Sandinista victory in 1979. One of the five members of the Sandinista junta, Ortega was named coordinator of the junta in 1981 and three years later was elected president of Nicaragua. He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1990 by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro , the candidate of the National Opposition Union. Chamorro’s term expired in 1996. Ortega reemerged as the FSLN candidate for president in May 1996 but was defeated in the October election by conservative candidate Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo.

Ortega was also the FSLN candidate for president in 2001, and although he was defeated, he captured 42 percent of the vote. Ortega remained influential in Nicaraguan politics, and in 2006 he once again ran for president as the FSLN’s candidate. With strong support among Nicaragua’s poor, he secured a large enough plurality to defeat conservative candidate Eduardo Montealegre. Ortega took office in January 2007, and, during his first months as president, it seemed to many that he had carried out his inaugural promises of implementing programs to eliminate hunger and illiteracy among the country’s impoverished, of maintaining a free-trade agreement with the United States , and of creating more private-sector jobs. But, after his first year in office, Ortega’s critics questioned his motives when he began restricting news coverage, denying journalists access to government reports, and aligning himself with leftist Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez . Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Through the Chávez regime’s PetroCaribe initiative , Nicaragua, like a number of other countries in the Caribbean region, received oil from Venezuela at discounted prices, which it then resold at market prices.

Ortega’s government used much of the profits on additional social programs that helped reduce poverty. Indeed, according to one measure, general poverty in Nicaragua fell from about 42 percent of the population to about 30 percent during 2009–14. During the same period—largely as a result of Venezuela’s help, aid from international financial organizations, diversified maquiladora production, strong agricultural and mining exports, and rising cash remittances from abroad—the Nicaraguan economy began taking big steps in the right direction, with unemployment falling to about 7 percent, whereas GDP growth climbed to 6 percent in 2011 before falling to about 4 percent in 2015. In July 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the FSLN revolution, Ortega announced his intention to amend the constitution so that the president could be reelected to a second, consecutive term. In October, in response to a petition from Ortega and more than 100 mayors, the Nicaraguan Supreme Court lifted the constitutional ban on consecutive reelection, allowing Ortega to run in the country’s 2011 presidential election.

In the event, Ortega won reelection with some 60 percent of the vote, though there were allegations of election fraud. Meanwhile, the FSLN established a “supermajority” by winning 62 of 90 seats in the National Assembly , clearing the way for Sandinistas to advance their legislative agenda. Bolivian President Evo Morales (C), toge Pictures | Getty Images Bolivian President Evo Morales (C), toge April 19, 2010 License Bolivian President Evo Morales (C), together with Nicaraguan President Daniel...Bolivian President Evo Morales (C), together with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (L), Cuban President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, watch a military parade to be held at Fort Tiuna as part of the celebrations of the Bicentenary of the Venezuelan independence from Spain, in Caracas on April 19, 2010. The march of military hardware and troops through the streets of Caracas marks the bicenntenial of the first steps towards independence from Spain, when on April 19, 1810 Venezuelan leaders moved to depose the colonial regime.

AFP PHOTO/Juan Barreto LessMore Nicaragua: Ortega allowed to run for third successive term - BBC News BBC News Nicaragua: Ortega allowed to run for third successive term 29 January 2014 Close share panel Image copyright AFP Image caption Ortega (left) was welcomed by Cuban President Raul Castro, who is hosting a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Havana The Nicaraguan National Assembly has approved changes to the constitution that would allow President Daniel Ortega to run for a third successive term in 2016. The bill scraps limits to the number of terms Nicaraguan presidents can serve. The opposition says the changes are a threat to democracy in the impoverished Central American nation. Mr Ortega's Sandinista Party argues that Nicaragua needs long-term stability to deal with its problems. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the region. Its main export is being threatened by coffee rust, a fungus affecting plantations across Central America. "This constitution is not the solution for our problems - poverty or coffee rust - but it allows us to move forward," said the Sandinista leader at the assembly, Edwin Castro. The constitutional changes were approved by 64 votes to 25.

One independent lawmaker and 63 Sandinistas voted in favour; only three members of the assembly missed the vote. The National Assembly had approved the bill on a first vote on 10 December. The reform also scraps the current rule, which says that the winning candidate needs to receive at least 35% of the vote to be appointed president. 'Ortega forever' Opposition legislator Maria Eugenia Sequeira, from the right-wing Independent Liberal Party, said the reforms "were designed to serve the interests of the current president." "It is more of the same in the history of Nicaragua," she added. Mr Ortega, 68, is a former left-wing guerrilla who led a successful revolution against the dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled Nicaragua for four decades. The Cuban-inspired Sandinistas seized power in 1979. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many opposition legislators left the assembly during the debate in protest at the imminent approval of the constitutional amendments Daniel Ortega headed the revolutionary committee that ruled the country until 1984. He was then elected president and served a term from 1985 to 1990.

In power, the Sandinistas redistributed property and made huge progress in the spheres of health and education. However, their pro-Cuban orientation alarmed the United States, which launched a sustained campaign of embargo and armed subversion. The party lost elections in the 1990s, but Mr Ortega returned to power in January 2007, after a successful election campaign. Controversially, he gained in the Supreme Court the right to run again in 2011. He has now been given the National Assembly's clearance to take part in the next vote and potentially serve his fourth term as president. "We do not need a Somoza, sorry, an Ortega forever," opposition legislator Alberto Lacayo commented ironically during Tuesday's debate. Obama Endures Ortega Diatribe | Fox News Obama Endures Ortega Diatribe Facebook 0 Twitter 0 livefyre Email Print PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago -- President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S.

aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba's Communist government. Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here. Later, at a photo opportunity with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper , Obama held his tongue when asked what he thought about Ortega's speech. "It was 50 minutes long. That's what I thought." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored two questions about Ortega's speech, instead offering lengthy praise of a cultural performance of dance and song opening the summit. "I thought the cultural performance was fascinating," Clinton said. Asked again about the Ortega speech, Clinton said: "To have those first class Caribbean entertainers on all on one stage and to see how much was done in such a small amount of space, I was overwhelmed." A senior administration official declined to criticize Ortega, saying the president wanted to focus on the future.

"His expectation is that these debates of the past can remain that, debates of the past and that the leaders can take advantage of this opportunity to focus on what they can do in the future to advance the interests of all the people of the hemisphere." Ortega, meanwhile, droned on about the offenses of the past, dredging up U.S. support of the Somoza regime and the "illegal" war against the Sandinista regime he once led by U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s. Ortega was a member of the revolutionary junta that drove Anastasio Somoza from power in 1979 and was elected president in 1985. He was defeated in 1990 by Violeta Chamorro and ran unsuccessfully twice for the presidency before winning in 2006. Of the 19th and 20th centuries, Ortega said: "Nicaragua central America, we haven't been shaken since the past century by what have been the expansionist policies, war policies, that even led us in the 1850s, 1855, 1856 to bring Central American people together.

We united, with Costa Ricans, with people from Honduras, the people from Guatemala, El Salvador. We all got together, united so we could defeat the expansionist policy of the United States. And after that, after interventions that extended since 1912, all the way up to 1932 and that left, as a result the imposition of that tyranny of the Samoas. Armed, funded, defended by the American leaders." Ortega denounced the U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's new Communist government in Cuba in 1961, a history of US racism and what he called suffocating U.S. economic policies in the region. In his 17-minute address to the summit, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega. "To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We've all heard these arguments before." Actually, the president misspoke on the sequence of events in Cuba.

The invasion of CIA-trained rebels at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba occurred in April 1961. Obama was born August 4, 1961. Ortega's speech, indulgent even by regional standards, also mocked the very summit he was attending and helping to open. "This summit and I simply refuse to call it summit of the Americas. Yes, we are gathered here, we have a large majority of presidents, heads of state of Latin America and the Caribbean," Ortega said, lamenting the lack of Cuban participation in the summit due to it exclusion since 1962 from the Organization of American States. "They're absent from this meeting. One is Cuba, whose crime has been that of fighting for independence, fighting for sovereignty of the peoples. I don't feel comfortable attending this summit. I cannot feel comfortable by being here. I feel ashamed of the fact that I'm participating at this summit with the absence of Cuba." Advertisement Nicaragua: Why President Ortega Is Likely to Be Re-elected - TIME Follow @TIME Daniel Ortega's closet is filled with skeletons that would terrify the bravest of campaign handlers.

The 65-year-old Nicaraguan President  once the mustachioed Marxist in olive fatigues who bedeviled the Reagan Administration in the 1980s  has admitted to murdering a National Guardsman in 1967, been convicted of bank robbery, been accused by a stepdaughter of sexual abuse and by Miskito Indians of genocide. He's been denounced for confiscating private property and using public office for personal enrichment, and he's been blamed for the systematic undermining of Nicaragua's constitutional order  including what many legal scholars call his illegitimate bid to win another five-year term this weekend. With a résumé like that, one might expect Ortega to have electability issues. But not in Nicaragua. Ortega, presiding over a record run of economic prosperity in his impoverished Central American nation, is expected to win re-election on Sunday, Nov. 6, by a landslide  even though critics say his candidacy is illegal, the elections are a sham and that his victory will mean a return to dictatorship after more than 20 years of democracy.

"You can say the Supreme Electoral Council has a dubious reputation and that the legality of Daniel Ortega's candidacy is also dubious, but what's undeniable is that [he] has more support than ever before," says Arturo Cruz, a political-science professor at Managua's INCAE Business School. "This is a total realignment." (See pictures of Election Day in the U.S.) An M&R Consultores voter poll released last week shows Ortega at 58%, with a seemingly insurmountable lead of 40 points over his closest rival, octogenarian radio producer Fabio Gadea, who was a contra-rebel supporter during Ortega's first presidency a generation ago. Former President Arnoldo Alemán  a conservative who was serving a 20-year sentence for a 2003 corruption conviction when it was overturned by the Ortega-controlled Supreme Court two years ago in what many called a political deal between him and Ortega  is polling a distant third. Ortega has engineered a stunning consolidation of political and economic power since his 2006 election.

That victory marked a comeback, if not revenge, after he and his revolutionary Sandinista government were voted out of power in 1990 following a decadelong civil war against the U.S.-funded contras. He lost two more presidential bids in 1996 and 2001 before finally regaining the presidency in 2006 with a twiggy 38% of the vote. Since returning to office, Ortega has worked hard to recover traditional Sandinista support and recruit new voters among disenfranchised youth. His selective crackdown on dissidents, while offensive by modern-day Facebook standards, has been tame compared with the Sandinista authoritarianism of the 1980s. And even his brazen assaults on rule of law  Ortega's questionable candidacy was born in a banana-republic moment in 2009, when Sandinista judges amazingly ruled that the constitutional ban on consecutive re-election was unconstitutional  have been met mostly with indifference in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas, of course, insist they're playing by democratic rules and deny that Ortega is acting like a dictator.

"Imagine, a dictator with no political prisoners  not one," Tomás Borge, the Sandinistas' last living founding member and Ortega's feared Interior Minister in the 1980s, said recently. "No one has been exiled during this 'dictatorship.'" Ortega has also gotten an assist from his feckless foes. For the first time ever, Ortega is winning support from independent voters who are traditionally anti-Sandinista but who have now given up on the opposition. As Ortega's opponents continue to point fingers, squawk and trip over their egos, independent voters realize Ortega is no longer the worst option. (See pictures of people around the world protesting Iran's election.) Nor do they seem too concerned that the $2 billion in aid poured into Nicaragua since 2006 by Ortega's chief patron, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has perhaps enriched the party far more than the country. Ortega and Sandinista leaders, in fact, have unabashedly used chunks of the money to purchase private ownership of Nicaraguan companies, sometimes as mixed Venezuelan-Sandinista business ventures, and to corner entire industries in Nicaragua.

It's startlingly reminiscent of the personal fiefdom that the Somozas  the dictator family the Sandinistas overthrew in 1979  made of Nicaragua during their long rule. What's more, say critics, Ortega has spent a modest remainder buying votes through social programs and party giveaways like food supplies, roofing materials, basic health care services, microcredit loans and other party perks. Political patronage isn't economic development, but it has helped satisfy the immediate daily needs of the "50% of the population whose top priority is survival," says veteran pollster Raúl Obregón. And for Nicaragua's huddled masses, basic needs take priority over democracy. Obregón's M&R poll shows that 54.6% of the population thinks it's O.K. to sacrifice a little institutional democracy to resolve socioeconomic problems, while 33% claim they don't care how a leader gets into power, so long as he resolves people's hardships. "People are saying, 'Democracy doesn't feed me; it doesn't fill my stomach,'" says Obregón. At the same time, Ortega has kept the wealthy happy by maintaining macroeconomic stability.

Business profits are at all-time highs, and banks are rolling in dollars from the Chávez-led alliance of leftist Latin America governments called ALBA. On the streets of Managua, it's not uncommon to see an expensive BMW pass a rickety horse-drawn cart  both waving Sandinista flags. Making matters more bizarre is the recent theatrical conversion of Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo to Christian fundamentalism, which at times seems to have the First Lady speaking in tongues. And even though idealists like the international leftists who backed the revolutionary government of the 1980s view Ortega's conversion to a Bible-thumping capitalist with sadness, Washington's old cold warriors are still disgruntled. "The developments in Nicaragua are a sad story from the perspective of human rights and respect for democracy," says Elliott Abrams, a controversial Assistant Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan. "Every human-rights organization has reported on harassment of the press, curbs on freedom of assembly and expression, vast corruption, and manipulation of the courts and of the elections." Still, few Nicaraguans care what U.S.

neocons have to say anymore as Washington's influence flickers  and especially since Washington's arrogant negligence of their war-torn country after 1990 helped lead to the economic misery that in turn led to Ortega's 2006 comeback. Showing up Uncle Sam might not be Ortega's primary goal  and his escalating power is less the revenge of his leftist revolution than a confirmation of his caudillo bent  but it's still a payback that few U.S. adversaries have pulled off as well as the Sandinistas. Rogers is editor of Long silence from Nicaragua's president as first lady keeps press at arm's length - Committee to Protect Journalists Committee to Protect Journalists Text Size Print Share It's been nearly 3,000 days since Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega last held a news conference, according to the opposition newspaper La Prensa . But when journalists complain about the lack of access to Ortega they often direct their ire not at the president but at the first lady, Rosario Murillo.

Murillo, 63, is the government's communications czar and chief architect of its strategy of shutting out independent media while fielding the occasional softball question from pro-government news outlets, independent Nicaraguan reporters told the Committee to Protect Journalists. And it's not just Ortega who has clammed up . Government ministers avoid critical journalists on the orders of Murillo, Lucydalia Baca, an editor at La Prensa, said. A 2009 special report by CPJ found that the government tries to harasses and smear independent reporters, and manipulate state advertising to punish critical media and reward allies--practices that continue, journalists told CPJ. Even when it comes to the biggest story in recent Nicaraguan history--plans to construct a $50 billion transoceanic canal that could transform the country--reporters trying to get information from the government about how the project will be financed and its possible environmental impact say they have run into major roadblocks . The chief source of official information is Murillo, who appears on television nearly every day to promote government policies and activities--with no opportunity for journalists to ask questions. Like her husband, Murillo refuses nearly all requests for interviews, including a recent one from CPJ.

"Her strategy is to 'decontaminate' information, which means that the people should hear exactly what the government wants to tell them," an editor at a Managua newspaper, who asked not to be named out of job security concerns, told CPJ. "That means going around independent journalists." "It is a very primitive concept," Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of the independent Confidencial newsletter, told CPJ. "There is an official monologue with zero debate, zero questions and zero transparency." A poet , Murillo once worked as a secretary for Chamorro's father, La Prensa editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, whose 1978 assassination turned many Nicaraguans against dictator Anastasio Somoza . Eventually, Murillo joined the Sandinista guerrilla movement and was briefly arrested in 1976. She then fled to Costa Rica where she became involved with Ortega--one of the nine top Sandinista commanders--and helped launch Radio Sandino, the movement's clandestine station. By the time the Sandinistas overthrew Somoza in July 1979, Murillo and Ortega were a couple. They married in 2005.

During the 1979-1990 Sandinista revolutionary government that was headed by Ortega, Murillo's role was limited because Ortega shared power with the eight other rebel commanders who made up the Sandinista National Directorate Murillo's rise to influence, according to many analysts and news reports , coincided with a scandal involving allegations of incest. In 1998, Murillo's daughter from a previous relationship, Zoilamérica Narváez, accused Ortega of sexually abusing her from the age of 11. Ortega denied the accusations, which were thrown out in 2001 by the Supreme Court because the statute of limitations had expired. Through it all, Murillo reportedly backed Ortega and called her daughter mentally unstable and a political enemy. "In exchange," wrote Kenneth E. Morris in his Ortega biography Unfinished Revolution , "Murillo extracted real political power" from Ortega.

Chamorro told CPJ: "It is obvious that after the Zoilamérica crisis, Murillo's political role grew." After three failed reelection bids--in 1990, 1996, and 2001--Murillo helped manage Ortega's political comeback. She promoted a kinder, gentler image of Ortega and replaced the red and black colors of the Sandinista party with softer pastels that dominate billboards and government advertising. Ortega won the 2006 election and was re-elected in 2011. Often, the Nicaraguan media has focused on Murillo's extravagant tastes. Compared to her austere husband who favors plain white shirts, Murillo is a clotheshorse with a penchant for lots of accessories. A survey by La Prensa showed that in 463 official photographs taken over three years, the first lady wore 462 different outfits . Her speeches are peppered with references to Christian values, spirituality, and Mother Earth.

She recently ordered the construction in the capital, Managua, of dozens of towering yellow metal "trees of life" that, she said , symbolize "the faith that mobilizes us." But beyond the New Age façade, Chamorro says, Murillo's power is very real. She is widely considered by political analysts as a co-leader of the government with Ortega, as well as being its communications chief. During a summit in Costa Rica in January, Ortega named Murillo as his acting foreign minister. There is even speculation among analysts and supporters that she may try to succeed Ortega by running for president in 2017. If so, she may have much of the media on her side. La Prensa and Confidencial are the only remaining print outlets in Nicaragua that regularly criticize the Ortega government. Nearly all TV and radio stations, where most Nicaraguans get their news, are owned by allies or members of the Ortega family, or provide relatively benign coverage of his government, Chamorro told CPJ. But in an interview with CPJ, Bayardo Arce, Ortega's top economics adviser, defended Murillo's media strategy.

After years of sensational and erroneous reporting on Ortega and the Sandinistas, Arce said, the government has decided that it will deal with "responsible" journalists only. "Not all journalists have access to the White House," Arce said. "So I don't see what the problem is. In all countries, governments open the door to serious journalists and deny access to those who are irresponsible." [Reporting from Managua] UPDATE: The text has been corrected to reflect that the colors of the Sandinista party are red and black. John Otis, CPJ's Andes correspondent for the Americas program, works as a correspondent for Time magazine and the Global Post. He authored the 2010 book Law of the Jungle, about U.S. military contractors kidnapped by Colombian rebels, and is based in Bogotá, Colombia. More on Daniel Ortega Will Run for President of Nicaragua for Seventh Time Daniel Ortega Will Run for President of Nicaragua for Seventh Time By: Elena Toledo - @NenaToledo - Jun 6, 2016, 9:12 pm 0 The National Sandinista Congress elected Daniel Ortega, unanimously, as their presidential candidate.

( Radio Nicaragua ) Español The Sandinista National Liberation Front (in Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) of Nicaragua confirmed President Daniel Ortega as the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming elections. The Nicaraguan elections will take place on November 6 and will define the presidency for the next five years. This is the seventh time that the FSLN, a left-wing party established in 1961, nominates Ortega as its presidential candidate. If elected, Nicaragua will be facing Ortega’s fourth term in power. At least a thousand delegates of the FSLN voted for Ortega during the party’s National Congress, held this past Saturday in Managua. The Congress was also held to honor the 37th anniversary of the call to arms for the Final Attack (La “Ofensiva Final”), which stretched out into weeks of battles to finally bring victory to the Sandinista Popular Revolution (Revolución Popular Sandinista) on July 19, 1979, effectively ending the Somoza family’s dictatorship, which lasted for more than four decades.

According to the Sandinistas, their election of Ortega as their presidential candidate acknowledges the “difficulties and challenges” he faced and the “victories” which he obtained during his mandate. Read More: Daniel Ortega to Seek Nicaraguan Presidency for Seventh Time Ortega’s election aims to “keep guiding our country, with God’s and the people’s favor, through the paths of prosperity, victory, and blessings.” The Sandinistas also want to “maintain the international alliances that guarantee a model of reconciliation, unity, common good, and prosperity, for a Christian, socialist, and public-spirited Nicaragua.” The official text also allows Ortega to freely choose his own vice-presidential running mate. Ortega was the presidential candidate for the Sandinista Front in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011. His candidacy in 2016 marks the seventh time he runs for president.

Ortega won the elections in 1985 (for the 1985-1990 term), 2006 (2006-2011), and again in 2011. His current term ends this year with the November elections. In 2011, he was reelected with 62.45% of the vote. In November, the Nicaraguan people will vote to elect their president and vice president as well as 90 congressmen and 20 members of the Central American Parlament (Parlamento Centroamericano, PARLACEN). “We’re done with international observation” In his speech to the FSLN Congress, Ortega slammed the door shut on the possibility of allowing independent international observers to oversee the Nicaraguan elections in November. “Scoundrel observers. Let them go observe other countries. Here, we are done with international observation,” Ortega also attacked diplomats. He said that he expects “less noise” from the November elections than in those recently held in other countries, where candidates had to retire from at the last minute.

Apparently, he was referring to Sandra Torres, the former first lady of Guatemala, whose 2011 presidential candidacy was blocked by Guatemala’s judicial branch. “No observers, not the European Union, nor the OAS, are expected to present themselves… They know that in Nicaragua they face a People of antiimperialist vocation,” says Ortega. — Eduardo Montealegre (@emontealegrer) June 5, 2016 Opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre, president of the Independent Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Independiente, PLI), wrote on his Twitter account that the “Election Law establishes electoral observation. Thus, Ortega asks (demands) that the Supreme Electoral Council (Consejo Supremo Electoral, CSE) break the law. Outright disobedience,” he wrote. By: Sabrina Martín - @SabrinaMartinR - Jun 6, 2016, 8:55 pm EspañolIn an attempt to establish a dialogue between the Venezuelan opposition and Nicolás Maduro's administration, former President of Spain Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero managed to meet with political prisoner Leopoldo López.

During their conversation, López said he would not negotiate his freedom in order to call off the recall referendum, as has been suggested. He insisted that the referendum was still the only possible solution to the country's worsening economic and humanitarian crisis. Zapatero is the only former president authorized by the Venezuelan government to visit López. The former Spanish leader's visit came after Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States (OAS), moved to invoke the Democratic Charter against Venezuela due to Maduro's obstruction of the referendum process. Although some countries in the region have requested a dialogue between the government and the opposition to solve the current crisis, the opposition is united: it will consider establishing a dialogue with the government only after the referendum is scheduled. López's position strengthens this stance. Zapatero was named as a mediator by the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), which the Venezuelan opposition views with mistrust since the late Hugo Chávez was one of the organization's creators. The conversation between Zapatero and López, which took place on the ground floor of the Ramo Verde Prison, lasted two hours. Adriana López, the political prisoner's daughter, was a witness.

According to López's lawyer Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, Zapatero insisted that López, who leads Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), a political party, should support the opposition's dialogue with the government. López said he would not consider the request while the recall referendum was the only solution to the country's problems. "I won't negotiate my freedom in exchange for the recall referendum against Nicolás Maduro. My particular situation does not play a part in the amnesty law (for political prisoners), nor does it involve a presidential pardon nor a national dialogue. Nor does it have to do to the opposition's demands to the government before the international community." Leopoldo López tweeted some of the details about his conversation with Spain's former president. The government must authorize the visit (to the Ramo Verde Prison) of the Episcopal Conference, of members of the opposition, and of all the former presidents who have requested it. I confirmed the importance of liberating all political prisoners. Before my own liberty is Venezuela's freedom! The change in the constitution in 2016 for which we have fought so hard is not negotiable! The Venezuelan people want a recall referendum in 2016.

I told (Zapatero) that no conversation or dialogue can be placed above the greater good: achieving a change to the constitution in 2016! I expressed my concern for everything that is happening in the country, for the profound humanitarian crisis and the need to open humanitarian assistance. The newspaper ABC in Spain explained the details of the meeting as well, reporting that Zapatero was seeking to convince López to request a negotiation with the government in which the recall referendum could be set aside. No recall, no dialogue Though the Venezuelan opposition appeared to be divided, the Organization of Democratic Unity (MUD) agreed that there is no possibility of dialogue with the government unless the recall referendum is scheduled beforehand. Alfonso Marquina, an opposition member of the National Assembly, said that the National Electoral Council must publish a schedule for the referendum. Read More: In Venezuela, Nazi-like Tactics Prevent Uprising Read More: Venezuela Attacks Journalists to Hide Protests "As a prerequisite to starting the dialogue," he said, "we ask for the publication of the official schedule for the recall referendum. It's the people's right".

Marquina said that additional mediators could also include Martín Torrijos and Leonel Fernández, former presidents of Panama and the Dominican Republic, as well as Unasur. He added that the international mediators will discuss possible solution to Venezuela's problems, hopefully within two or three months. Weekly E-Newsletter

Question: Daniel Ortega at the beginning of 2015 is the president of which country?
Answer: Nicaragua